No, Putin Isn't Following 'Reagan Playbook' in Ukraine–Thank God

[Judi Lynn]

No, Putin Isn't Following 'Reagan Playbook' in Ukraine–Thank God
By Jim Naureckas
Apr 09 2014

David Ignatius is a Washington Post columnist who is notable for his coziness with his sources in the CIA. So when he writes a column (4/8/14) headlined "Putin Steals the CIA's Playbook on Anti-Soviet Covert Operations," it's hard to know how to take that: Is it supposed to be a criticism or a compliment?

More specifically, Ignatius writes that Putin

may in fact be taking a page out of the United States' playbook during the Ronald Reagan presidency, when the Soviet empire began to unravel thanks to a relentless US covert-action campaign. Rather than confront Moscow head-on, Reagan nibbled at the edges, by supporting movements that destabilized Russian power in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola and, finally, Poland and Eastern Europe.

Ignatius credits this view to "John Ma­guire, a former CIA paramilitary covert-action officer, who served in the Contras program in Nicaragua and later in the Middle East." Maguire argues that what Putin is doing in Ukraine is similar to what he and his colleagues did in Nicaragua. Really?

Though this history has largely gone down the memory hole, as demonstrated by the whitewashing of Reagan's record at the time of his death (Media Advisory, 6/9/04), the CIA-backed Contras were not just "hit-and-run guerrillas in Nicaragua," as Ignatius describes them. They were an organized terrorist force that targeted schools, health clinics and other civilian facilities.

Their standard tactics, in the words of human rights advocate Reed Brody, were "the killing of unarmed men, women, children and the elderly" and "premeditated acts of brutality including rape, beatings, mutilation and torture." The war left an estimated 30,000 dead.

More:
http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/04/09/no-putin-isnt-following-reagan-playbook-in-ukraine-thank-god/